A Homeschooling Mother's Journey Through The Craziness

Monthly Archives: January 2015

I’d love to say it’s because everything is clicking and going fantastically. However, that would be a complete and total lie.

Right after the New Year, ALL of us caught the flu. I’m not talking we were slightly ill. Kind of wish we had been tested (still a little annoyed), but am pretty sure we had the real deal. It. Was. Bad.

And then this week, we were “blessed” with the stomach virus going around. Ugh.

However, I didn’t have to worry about contacting a school or worrying about falling behind.

And I didn’t have to deal with getting a child to school in the morning after her sister and I had been up all night.

This particular benefit to homeschooling is pretty awesome.

(Now praying that since we’ve caught the big two illnesses this year, we will be healthy!)

It’s no secret, I’ve had a serious weight problem for the vast majority of my life. I’ve never been a “little” over-weight. I’ve always been the fat friend.

Genetically, I lost that lottery. It is what it is. And I’ll probably never have a bikini body. I doubt I’d ever be comfortable showing that much skin anyway (I’m a bit conservative). But I want to be able to shop in a normal store. THAT is my ultimate goal.

I was doing great and then life happened and I’ve gained back about 15 pounds since October. Yeah, I wasn’t happy when I saw that on the scale. But I can see it in the bloat in my face and my hands.

So I’m back at it. I work out 4 or 5 days a week (at least 2 of them with a good amount of weight training). I’m tracking everything I eat in myfitnesspal.

I have a goal to be 62 pounds lighter (there’s a reason for that number) by the time we go on our cruise in late November. I honestly don’t expect to make that. And maybe that’s me shooting myself in my foot, but I spent 6 months stuck at one weight. Ugh! It may not happen in the time span I have set for myself. It may not happen in a year. But it’s going to happen.

I want the girls to know how to eat properly. How to take care of themselves. How to not end up hating their bodies.

I hate change. I definitely crave all of the “bad” things for me (French fries! Chocolate! Chips!) and I know it will take a time to get those cravings to go away. I know I need to try new things, but that’s hard. For instance, I see people using vegetables and things like spaghetti squash in place of noodles, but I’m worried that I’m going to hate it. Change. Yuck. You can call my Sheldon in this instance (kudos if you know my favorite show).

It’s not a diet. That’s what I keep telling myself. For this to work, this is a family lifestyle change.

Check back periodically and help me make this change. Heaven knows I need all the help I can get!

In fact, I’d be hard-pressed to say that I have even 25% of the answers.

We’re just starting this journey after all.

I’ve mentioned Paige and the challenges we have with her in the past. She’s 6 and ridiculously active. Constantly needing something to occupy her attention. And if what I want her to do doesn’t fall in her wheel-house, her attention span is approximately 30 seconds.

But here’s what I’ve found.

Paige can do work well above her years…IF SHE CAN VERBALIZE IT. So things like writing? Long math worksheets? Those just don’t work.

It will take her an hour to do 2 pages of work if I require her to write the answers herself. With me writing her answers? 5 minutes. We can get through 1/2 of one of her workbooks (about 25 pages) in about 30-45 minutes.

I know there are quite a few people that believe that what I do is cheating. I know that writing is necessary (and she does still do some writing, just not as much as perhaps some of her peers), but not at 6. 10? Definitely.

She loves reading, but has to read out loud. Math is easy and she picks it up quickly, but more than 5 or 6 problems and she’s drawing on her paper.

Work is rarely done at the table or her desk. A wiggle chair helps, but isn’t enough. So most of the time, she’s rolling around on the couch. Or running circles in the living room.

If the material we are working on isn’t challenging, forget about it. I actually picked up a 3rd grade workbook to ‘test’ her at Costco the other day and other than a few concepts we’ve never gone over, she was getting it. I have a feeling I’ll be ordering both 3rd and 4th grade when I order her Language Arts and History curriculum. Not exactly a cheap proposition, but we will use it anyway, so might as well (especially since it’s going to be 20% off and give me bonus points {join Homeschool Buyers’ Co-op!! It’s free!} on the 31st of this month).

With Paige, I feel like I have to be constantly ‘on’. I can’t just skate by as a teacher. I have to constantly figure out how to help her learn. How to make things more hands-on.

Honestly…it’s exhausting.

And then there’s the social aspect. The child knows no strangers. She doesn’t understand most boundaries. Things like hugging and telling someone you just met that you love them isn’t always the best idea. Teaching that she shouldn’t be doing that feels wrong. This world could use a little more love, you know? But people get the wrong impression and quite frankly, it’s scary how much trouble she could get in these days. Hands off, no touching…yadda yadda yadda.

So now I’m curious. If you’re reading this, how do you homeschool? How do you deal with a highly distracted child? How do you keep learning interesting?

I’m sure we will be changing many times throughout our journey. Sure that what we do this week likely won’t work next week. But it’s still better than many other alternatives.